[An excellent souvenir photo album visually recording the variety of projects overseen by Clark at the end of the Roaring 20’s into the New Deal undertakings in the Great Depression. These include the

Item Details

[Chicago, IL, Kansas City, MO & Minneapolis, MN:, Orville P. Clark, William Woolfolk & Co. Engineers, United States Post Office,, 1927-1934]., Hardcover Post-Binder

N/A, VG

Oblong folio. 13 x 10.25 in. [94 pp (unpaginated).], w/ nearly all thick black paper stock. With 87 original silver gelatin photographs sized from 2.5 x 4.5 in. up to 8 x 10 in., majority are 8 x 10 in., many are linen-backed, with several bound-in to the post-binder, many w/ photographer’s imprint, although over 42 were produced by Nordin Studios in Minneapolis, MN, the remainder mounted w/ black corners, or mounted directly to the page, most featuring ink MS annotations identifying date and project, 5 photos arranged as panoramic photo of unidentified town in the snow, and w/ 10 additional studio portrait photos by Harris & Ewing, House of Photography in Washington, D.C. of Clark laid-in, several newspaper clippings mounted and included, related to projects in Washington, D.C. and the post office project. Original green-ribbed cloth post-binder, gilt lettering stamped front cover, nickel plated screwposts at gutter margin, ownership of O.P. Clark in red ink MS on front cover (scuffing, minor staining & soiling to covers, occasional wear & creasing to photos), still a VG exemplar, w/ nearly all photos retaining excellent bright contrast. 

This nicely composed souvenir album tracks the construction progress, methods, and equipment overseen by Clark (1900-1972) who began his career with the William Woolfolk & Co., Engineers based out of Chicago, Illinois, and began overseeing the construction of the historic ASB Bridge built by the Union Depot, Bridge & Terminal Railroad Co. in Kansas City, MO. The ASB Bridge served the Wabash Railroad as their primary double-deck elevated line and viaduct into Kansas City, and both linen-backed photographs and snapshot series depict the work in concert by the Patterson Construction Co. for Concrete; Wisconsin Bridge & Iron Co. on steel erection based out of Milwaukee, WI, and the steel fabrication by the Kansas City Structural Steel Co. Other early projects from 1929-1931 captured by photos and annotations in the album outline the construction of a Texas power plant in 1930, possibly as part of the Fort Worth Power & Light Co. plant upgrades after discovery of the massive East Texas oil field in 1930; the E Street Tunnel in Washington D.C. in 1931 with the J.B. McCrafy Co. contractors out of Atlanta, GA, and the Meridian Hill Park in D.C. finished in Spring, 1932, with clippings. 

The key project anchoring the album captured in a month-by-month time-lapse style are the 42 Nordin Studio photographs depicting construction from groundbreaking to finish of the massive and historic Martin Olav Sabo Post Office in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota located on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, extending West to East from Hennepin Ave. Bridge, and nearby companion building erected. The building was one of the major Public Works Administration projects, designed by Leon Eugene Arnal for the Magney & Tusler architects, this PWA Moderne Art Deco style, or Streamline Moderne, featuring 3-story window units, decorative relief panels, and a 365-foot-long bronze chandelier running along the entire length of the lobby. The series of photos open with an image of the engineering office and at one end of the offices depict a massive blueprint for the proposed building in 1932. Constructions shots open Nov. 1, 1932 with large excavation, clearing of the site, and views of Minneapolis, and the Mississippi River in the background, continuing through the snow in the Winter of 1933. Steel erection began in April, 1933, with photos revealing the rebar placed into the floors, pouring of the concrete floors, footings, laying of the corner stone, and a pair of photos depicting R. Dempsey, the steel inspector, F. Mackey, Civil Engineer, Clark himself, Gabbart, the Contracting Engineer, and L.E. Allison, civil engineering ribbon-cutting with Mayor Bainbridge and city officials. 

The photographs continue with the completion of the structure, cladding using Mankato’s Kasota Limestone, and St. Cloud Black Granite, with several shots from different vantage points month-by-month, and the construction of nearby steel structure beginning in 1933-1934 next to the Post Office, in front of the Janney-Semple-Hill & Co. Warehouse in the background. Finishing photos include the HVAC run installation, boilers, and continuing finish work into June, 1934. Last two photos however are final shots of the Oakes, ND Post Office, completed later July 19, 1935. At the time of this construction project Nordin Studios was owned and operated by Alfred Otto Liebig (1889-1974) who had first started with the Nordin Bros. before World War I, and by the mid-1930’s had converted the Nordin Studios into Liebig Photo Studio, which operated in Minneapolis for decades. Clark was a World War I veteran who served with the 140th Field Hospital, 36th Division, 110 Sanitary Trian based out of Parsons, KS, dispatched to Europe in 1918, and discharged in 1919. After marrying Ruby Akyce Broadwell Clark in 1924 he worked for Woolfolk & Co. based in Chicago, and by 1940 became the Chief Engineer for the Post Office in Minneapolis, MN, later the Chief Building Engineer for the Veterans Administration in Minneapolis, followed by a move from Knoxville, IA to San Antonio, TX in the 1960’s where he was a minister. This cataloguer was unable to locate a similar group of construction progress photographs of the PWA project on the Minneapolis Post Office in Nordin Studio institutional holdings, including the Minnesota Historical Society.